A Different Ranma, a Different Story
by omnitroid
Summary: This is an AU story of how I would have acted if I was born as Ranma. Moved and revised from Omnitroid1


A/N: Couldn't motivate myself enough to do the other fic I promised, so here's the one from Omnitroid1. Revised, mind you, I did a really crappy job the first time. Also, I don't remember how to make the mark above the "e" in "fiance" appear, so you'll just have to deal with "fiance" for now. Anyway, enjoy!

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In Nerima, Japan, in the home of the ones named "Tendo", Soun Tendo was reading a postcard he'd recently gotten in the mail. It was addressed to him, from his old buddy Genma, last name Saotome. He suddenly began crying upon reading the postcard, which consisted of only the words, "Bringing Ranma from China. -Genma". Soun then proceeded to jump for joy. Literally. He almost hit his head on the ceiling. Almost.

"Kasumi! Nabiki! Akane! I have wonderful news!" he shouted, running off in search of his three daughters to tell them the truly "wonderful" news.

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"What the hell is wrong with you! You can't just _force _me to marry someone!" It was in another part of Nerima that a disturbance was occuring. If you consider a girl with a very... ahem... _prominant_ chest being chased down the street by a panda a "disturbance". If not, then one must be very acquainted with the situation, or general type of situation. Back to the matter at hand. Girl. Running. Panda. That should summarize it nicely. By this point, there were very incredulous whispers going around.

"Hey, is that a panda?"

"The panda engaged her?"

"Is she single?"

Of course, since they were just whispers, they did not reach the girl's ears, so she did not respond to them. That, and she was busy dodging a sign the panda swung at her that read, #It's family honour!#. It was promptly flipped around, the other side reading, #You have no choice in the matter!#. Once again it was flipped, confusing the people who were in sight of the words, the "third" side reading, #Now stop acting like a girl!# The panda then proceeded to try and knock the girl out using what looked to be martial arts.

"If you haven't noticed, I happen to _be_ a girl at the moment, so why_ shouldn't_ I act like it!?" the girl responded to the signs.

#Because girls are weak and controlled by their emotions!# read the next sign. It, too was flipped, the next side reading, #Martial artists don't _need_ emotions!#

"That's your worst argument yet!" the girl replied. "One, girls aren't weak!" She yelled, dodging a paw. "Two, _everyone_ has emotions!" She yelled, grabbing the paw. "And three, emotions make you _human_!" She yelled, flipping the panda overhead to crack viciously on the paved sidewalk. "I can't believe him," she said, turning around and walking away. She didn't get very far, as she was hit in the back of the head with a street sign the panda had uprooted while the girl wasn't looking. She was out cold.

The panda then flung her roughly over his shoulder, walking down the street again. He noticed the crowd the spectacle had attracted, and roared at them. The crowd scattered in fear. After all, it's not every day you see a panda using martial arts, let alone a panda who can uplift street signs and knock people out with them. Nodding to himself, the panda continued on his way.

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Akane couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her father had gotten her engaged! And that wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was that he didn't even _know _who he was engaging her to! Just that he was the son of a friend of his! And with her luck, the guy would be as perverted, if not more so, as the guys from her school!

"Dad, you can't seriously have...," she was cut off as there was a knock at the door.

"Oh, that must be them!" Soun exclaimed as he ran for the door, Nabiki close behind, wanting to be the first to see her possible future husband. It was only a couple of seconds before they came running back, followed by a panda carrying a loudly complaining girl.

"Put me _down_!" the girl was yelling.

"Your friend's a _panda_!?" Nabiki yelled at her father. Soun just shook his head frantically. "Oh, so a panda just decided to come for a visit, is that it!?" she asked. Again, Soun frantically shook his head. It was at that moment that the panda reached the middle-ish part of the room and set the girl, none too gently, down in front of him.

"Y-you wouldn't happen to be...?" Soun began.

"Um, I'm Ranma Saotome," the girl said, not nearly as loud as she was yelling earlier. "Um, sorry about the panda."

"Ranma, my boy!" Soun said, grabbing the "boy" in a bear hug which she found was extremely uncomfortable. "It's so good to see... you...," Soun faltered, feeling something, technically some_ things_ that weren't supposed to be there, from his point of view. He examined the newly dubbed Ranma at arms length. Nabiki came over and poked "his" chest, having noted the two lumps that had no place on a man's chest. Ranma was too stunned to respond.

"'He' is a she," she stated. Soun fell backwards, unconscious.

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Well, that certainly wasn't the greeting I was expecting, but then again, almost nothing goes as I would have expected anyway. But still, _fainting_ in front of me because I happened to be a girl? I know they must have been expecting me to be a guy, but _still_. That made me question his... What was the word? Sanity? No, that wasn't quite it. Or maybe it was. I don't really know. Anyway, after the man I know to be Dad's old training partner, Soun Tendo, fell unconscious, I helped to get him onto a futon that the oldest (or who I assume to be the oldest) daughter had gotten from somewhere. After that, we'd all just sort of sat ourselves down around him, not really saying anything.

After about a minute or two, he started coming around.

"Poor father, he must be so upset," the oldest girl said, breaking the silence.

"_He's_ upset?" the (what I assume to be, since she looks older than the long-haired girl) middle girl said. I remember her only as "the one who poked my chest". "Some fiance _this_ is," she said, pointing to me. "Why didn't you make sure Ranma was a girl or not?" she said to Soun.

"I assumed my friend's _son_ was a boy," he replied, not getting up.

"Does this look like a boy to you?" she replied, trying to grab my breasts. I dodged her this time, labeling her as a pervert-until-proven-otherwise. Normally, people don't try to touch a girl's breasts twice unless they were a pervert. But I could be wrong, hence the "until-proven-otherwise" part of the label. Seeing what she'd tried to do, the one with the long hair, the one that had to be the youngest if the other two were older, reprimanded her.

"Nabiki!" She said, giving me the middle one's name. "He... _she_... is a guest!" She then got up and walked over to me. "Hi, I'm Akane, want to be friends?" she said, smiling down at me. 'So that's two,' I thought. 'What's the oldest girl's name, then?'

"Um, sure, I guess...," I said out loud, but (ironically) very quietly.

"Come on, I'll show you the dojo," she said, offering a hand to help me up. I wasn't trying to be rude, but since I didn't know her, I got up by myself. She didn't seem offended, though, as she simply shrugged, turned around, and started walking. I hesitantly followed her. When we got to the dojo, she walked to the middle of the room and turned around. "You study kenpo, right?" She asked.

"Um, I guess, though my style is really a mixture of a lot of different styles." I said, as quietly as before.

"Really? Mine is too! Wanna spar? Don't worry, I'll go easy on you!"

"Um, I guess...," I replied.

"Why do you do that?" she asked me.

"Do what?"

"You keep saying 'I guess'. Do you not want to?"

"Oh, sorry. I say that about everything."

"So, do you?"

"Do I what?" She gave an exasperated sigh.

"Do you want to spar?" she repeated for me.

"Oh, sorry. Yes, I think that'd be okay... I guess...," I replied. She sighed again, but got into a stance, seeming to accept my acceptance of a spar.

"Hey, aren't you going to take a stance?" she asked me after a couple of seconds.

"What do you mean? This is my stance," I replied.

"If you say so," she said. After a few more seconds, she ran at me with a battle cry. Ah, so she was trying to catch me off guard, making me think she'd come at me wildly with a right hook, but at the last second, switch to a leg sweep or something else. Tricky. I decided to play along for now, ducking before she got to me and striking at a fake opening I saw... or not so fake, seeing as how I punched her across the room.

"Oh, crap," I said, running towards her. "I'm sorry, I didn't try to hit you that hard! Actually, I thought you were gonna dodge that, sorry!"

"Ugh," she replied, getting up. "It's okay, don't worry about it too much. I was asking for it, so it's really my fault. You're pretty strong though, I got hit across the room. And I thought _I_ was the best martial artist in Nerima. Ouch."

"I'm really sorry, it's just that I'm so used to sparring with my Dad. I'm so sorry." I kept apologizing.

"It's okay, really," she said with a weak smile. "I'm just glad you're not a boy."

"What, why?" I asked.

"It's nothing, really, just that all the boys in the school are perverts who are trying to get me do date them by beating me in combat." I just stared at her. Then I started laughing. I tried to hold it back, but it didn't work. "What's so funny?" she asked me, looking confused.

"It's just that... that... who would try to do that!?" I said, laughing the whole time. "What are they, stupid? That's not the right way to get a girl's attention! Well, it technically works, but still!"

"Now that I think about it, it _is_ kind of funny, she said, joining in the laughter. After we calmed down a bit, she continued. "It was all upper classman Kuno's fault. One day he made an announcement that whoever wanted to date me had to defeat me in combat." I stared at her. And started cracking up again.

"And they just went along with it!? Hahaha! How stupid can you get!?" We both went off laughing again. After we'd calmed down (again) I remembered something I had to tell her. "Umm, actually, Akane..."

"What is it?" she asked.

"I'm not actually... well, I wasn't _born _as... I kinda wasn't... born as a girl...," I said, thinking of a way to word it that sounded good.

"What do you mean?" she asked me. "I mean, you're obviously a girl, no _guy_ could have a chest like yours," she said, pointing.

"No, they really couldn't," I agreed. "But I'm telling the truth. I... Well, I really don't want to have to explain it twice, so can we go back now? I promise I'll explain everything, just... just please promise to not get angry when I do? I don't want you to not be my friend anymore... I've never had many friends for too long... can you promise me that?"

"Uh, sure," she responded, looking anything but. I just hoped it would turn out okay. I'd really hate to lose a friend who'd _just_ offered to _be_ my friend.

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"Kasumi, do you know that guy who's sitting across from Dad?" Nabiki asked Kasumi, referring to the bandana'd man sitting across from their father, both of whom were just staring at each other with tears falling down their faces.

"I'm not sure," Kasumi responded, having only noticed the man herself. She was about to say something else when Akane walked in.

"Kasumi, can you get me some hot and cold water please?" she asked her older sister.

"Whatever for, Akane?" Kasumi responded.

"Ranma said she had something to show us and that she needed hot and cold water to do it. I don't really understand it myself, though."

"Okay. I really do wonder what this is about though," Kasumi said, boiling some water. When she was done, she handed the kettle to Akane, moving to the sink next, turning on the tap. Getting a glass, she filled it up with cold water and handed it to Akane as well.

"Thanks, Kasumi," she said, walking back out of the room before Kasumi had a chance to reply.

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When everyone was all gathered, I began my introduction/explanation/demonstration.

"Me and my father went to a training ground in China a few months ago called "Jusenkyo". This training ground had hundreds, if not thousands, of pools of water, each having at least one bamboo pole sticking out. Dad, being Dad, immediately jumped on one and took up a fighting stance. I followed him, jumping onto my own pole-..."

"Wait, what does this have to do with what you said you had to show us?" Akane interrupted.

"I'm getting there, hold on. So, like I said, we'd gotten on the poles when this guy came out of the nearby guide's hut, yelling at us to stop. I couldn't really pay attention to him, as Dad attacked me soon after, leaving me no opportunity to pay attention to the guide. The thing about the pools is that, once you fall in, you're not coming back out like you'd fallen in. I knocked Dad into a pool, but instead of my dad coming out, a big huge panda came out, wearing his clothes and glasses. I was so freaked out, I couldn't block his next attack. I was thrown into a different pool."

"I don't think I like where this is going," Akane said.

"I fell into a different pool. Hot water changes you back, but when splashed with cold water again, you change back into whatever you were when you came out. When splashed with cold water, my dad turns into a panda. When splashed with hot water, he changes back. This," I said, gesturing to him, "is my dad. He is the panda you saw earlier. Me," I said pouring the hot water over myself, changing back into my birth form. "I was born a guy."

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Ranma sat, waiting for the reactions. Especially Akane's. After all, he was wondering if she'd keep her promise. The first reaction was Nabiki's, who took the cold water and dumped it over his head, turning him into a very annoyed girl.

"Well this is interesting," was all she said. The next reaction was Kasumi's. Try to guess what her reaction was.

"Oh my." If that's what you guessed, you guessed right. Akane still showed no reaction, but Ranma could tell she was angry, though trying to hold it back. He sighed. I guess I'll just go now," he said, depression sinking in. "Give you time to think." And with that, he walked outside, completely ignoring his father, who got the brunt of Nabiki's curiosity, being splashed with cold and hot water repeatedly.

Akane, to her own shock, had actually seen the depression that had flashed across Ranma's face and found her anger mostly evaporate, remembering her promise. 'So that's why he said that,' she thought. She got up to go look for him, hoping to apologize. She could tell that he wasn't like the boys at her school. _They_ wouldn't have told her about the... What was it? A curse? She assumed so. The boys at her school wouldn't have told her about the curse. They would have used it as an opportunity to peep on her. The fact that he _did_ tell her meant that he wasn't like that. At least, not _too _much.

She found Ranma on the roof, one knee pulled to her chest, looking out into space. She got a ladder and got onto the roof with her. She looked at her for only a second as she sat down next to her before looking away again.

"I...," Akane started, not knowing where to start. "I'm sorry for getting angry. I just... Well, all experience I have with guys are the people at my school and they can be, well... really perverted. I know you're not like that. If you were, you wouldn't have told me about it. I actually did think you were like that anyway, until I saw your face. You really haven't had many friends, have you?" Ranma didn't respond. The silence lasted for a couple of minutes. She was about to go inside again when she heard Ranma say something.

"No, I haven't. And the ones that I _did_ have... Well, let's just say we parted on bad terms."

Am and was about to say something, but felt like she'd interrupt something so she held off. True to her intuition, Ranma continued a few seconds later.

"It's not easy, living with my dad. We travel all over the place. I learned early on that that meant I couldn't have any permanent friends. My first friend was a guy named Ukyo. Dad ran off with his dad's okanomiyaki cart. The other was a guy named Ryoga. We went to middle school together. It was an all boy's school, and the lunches were crazy. When they'd run out of bread and there was only one left, they'd throw it into this huge crowd who'd shown up for it. I got it every time. I shared it with Ryoga, but he seemed to think in was taking pity on him or something so he challenged me to a duel at the empty lot behind his house. You wouldn't believe his sense of direction," Ranma said, chuckling. "He could get lost in a room with one door. No joke. So I figured it'd take him a couple of days to get there. I was planning on waiting for him, but Dad knocked me out and dragged me off to China at the third day. I didn't get to say bye."

The silence stretched between them once more.

"So when you looked so angry just then, I figured _that_ friendship was over before it even began. I figured you needed space to think, or something, so I came out here. Looking at the stars makes me... I dunno... _something_. I like looking at the stars, but I can't describe what it makes me feel like. Look at me, trying to give you space to think, then dropping all of this on you. Sorry."

"No, it's okay. Besides, I promised I wouldn't get mad, didn't I?" Akane replied.

"You still did, I could see it," Ranma said.

"If I say I didn't, then I didn't!" Akane said, playfully swatting his arm.

"If you say so," he replied with a smile. Soon they were both laughing.

"So, friends?" Akane asked.

"Sure," Ranma replied, smiling up at the stars.

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A/N: So there it is, the revised story. It's a lot different, because I didn't understand before how I would react, didn't actually put myself in Ranma's shoes. Now that I have, I found that if I was Ranma, I probably would act like this. Also, the "123454321" signifies either a change in P.O.V. or a time lapse. The time lapse could even be backwards. In other words, a flashback. I will give clues as to the p.o.v. and a mount of time lapse, though, so don't worry about that. So, enjoy the revised version? Maybe not? Maybe like the old version more? Leave a comment, I don't care if it's flames because honestly? I'm a bit of a pyro so any flames will be used to sate the pyro in me. Anyway, see you in the next one, omnitroid out.


End file.
